Corporate communication sees churn as media outlets mushroom

With the explosion of media outlets, the field of corporate communications is undergoing a sea change – in strategy, budgets and approach.

It has become an integral part of a company’s management decision, says Deeptie Sethi, Head of Communications, Ford India.

For an auto company like Ford, engagement with media outlets and begins at the pre-launch phase and continues long after a vehicle has been introduced, she adds.

Hike

Of late, companies have had to hike their public relations (PR) and communications budgets. This can be a reflection of sales growth or geographical expansion. However, none is willing to share their communications costs.

Robert Holdheim, Managing Director, Edelman India, a PR agency, says, “It is important to distinguish between PR costs and PR investments. While compensation for PR services still has a long way to go, overall investment on PR could be growing, and not because of the spate of media houses alone.” He says PR is a strategic requirement for articulating a company's business and realise its goals.

But, PR professionals say more investments are needed to cover the entire country as companies expand.

Says Jaideep Shergill, CEO, Hanmer MSL, “Spends have increased as the industry is evolving, but it is not like PR budget and spends have doubled or tripled. It depends on a company’s strategy. Besides, these spends are shared by advertising, digital and PR.”

Nalin Kapoor, Group Head, Marketing, Hyundai Motor India, said “The proportion of our spends in marketing has gone up because of new launches, as well as new sources of communication, such as internet and social media. However, companies have done some kind of optimisation, that is reducing costs on other media channels.”

Others believe that communication spends have gone up due to the explosion of media houses. Rajeev Karwal, Founder, Milagrow Business and Knowledge Solutions, says “In the past six months, our communication spend has overshot by 25-30 per cent. There is a proliferation of media houses and if one doesn't streamline media strategy one can end up overshooting budgets.”

From a time when nearly 90 per cent of work was done by in-house teams, some companies now prefer to hire a PR agency in spite of in-house teams.

Depending on their size, companies hire corporate communications officials and PR agencies for respective verticals. For example, each ITC vertical is handled by a different PR agency. However, the company has one corporate communications department based in Kolkata, handling all verticals, a senior PR official, who did not wish to be named, said.

Pressures

The pressures are many. “Never before have we seen multi-faceted demands on corporate communications,” says Satinder S. Juneja, Vice President – Marketing & Sales, NIIT Technologies. The need for clear and precise messaging is on the rise, thanks to increased competition. Add to that the expectation of a fragmented audience and internal stakeholders.

He feels brands need to invest in specialist services, such as tracking and monitoring. “Emerging channels like social media are increasing the scope and expectations,” he adds.

Another upcoming trend is blogging. There is strong resonance and recognition for not just auto bloggers, but tech and lifestyle bloggers, too.

D. Vijayalakshmi, General Manager, Corporate Communications, Murugappa Group, however, says their corporate communications budget has been stable over the last three years. But, allocation has shifted a bit.

Traditional media (TV, print) accounts for almost 60 per cent, internal communications 15 per cent, and the balance is spread among new media (digital), outdoor and events.

(Inputs from Heena Khan, Meenakshi Verma Ambwani, Ronendra S. Singh and Roudra Bhattacharya in Delhi; and Swetha Kannan in Chennai.)

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